Looking for above ground pool info

[Ryan_V]

I think our family would really get some use out of a pool, now the shopping begins. What should I look for?? I have 2 girls, 4 and 9. Should I look at the inflatable ones? I have dogs and cats, so that kind of worries me. How about a metal framed one?? How costly are they to maintain during the summer? How much of a headache is it?? I'm thinking i'd like one 42" or 48" deep. Just looking for thought from people who have them. As always, thanks for the info!!!

[LwnmwnMan2]

We had one of the easy set pools from Wal-Mart, the big one for something like $300.

We had just come back from Texas and my sister-in-law and hubby had one, SHE said it was a piece of cake.

Turns out with the water we had (well water, quite hard) it was nearly impossible to get the water clean. Our brother-in-law runs Fort Bliss in El Paso and one of his soldiers was a pool tech and he was taking care of the pool, not so much the sister-in-law.

If you get one, keep it out of the shade, ours never had a chance to warm up.

If you're not on city water, have water hauled in. It'll be much easier to keep the water clean if you're already dealing with "chloronated" water.

The easy set pool would stand up to the cat, the sides are fairly thick.

If you have big dogs and they're going to want to jump in the pool, you MAY have an issue if the toenail digs in, but again, it's fairly thick skinned.

[Ryan_V]

good to know, we are on well water, so I was wondering about that. I'm sure the fire dept would haul some out for a donation. We're thinking the framed one, not the inflatable one. going now to price them out.

[gofishingtom]

well water is not a problem if u fill the pool and when ur filling it use 2 white tube socks over the hose to filter some of the metals out of the water and then when u fill the pool with water (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT) put in a stain and scale out or iron out fleet farm had a good stain and scale that must be put in forst before any shock or chlorine..if u dont do that the shock will react with the metals and the water will turn brown or green...then u have to start over.. i know that city water could do this also i know the town of waite park in st cloud doesnt have good city water..otherwise poools can be a big pain in the ### i had a poool for 10 years 18by36 with a 7ft deep end took me 2 years to get the chemicals right after that it was a piece of cake..but the cost of chemicals can get ya also...look into the salt water systems u dont have to add chlorine...GOOD LUCK!!!!!

[Bigbartguy]

I have a 15’? easy-set-type pool for my 4 yr old (and ALL of her friends) and we love it.

Couple of quick notes:

The inflatable easy-sets supposedly can collapse when kids hang on the sides. Since kids inevitably end up hanging on the sides, I went with the type with the white ‘pipes’ that support the pool .

*lay a tarp/ground cover down so your grass doesn’t grow ‘thru’ the bottom of the pool

*buy the cheapy bubble wrap pool cover that floats on the surface. It raises our pool temp by 7+ degrees. Helps keep the junk out of it also.

*put a rubber tray w/water in front of the ladder for kids to dip their feet into – it’ll keep a TON of grass out of your pool.

* $200 on a saltwater system at Wallie World. I cant rave about this enough!! I check it once a week and have only used 1 chemical since: pool shock after a busy pool day. It runs automatically for 2 hours a day and keeps our pool perfect. No chemicals to fool with and easier on the kids as well. Look into this before you go buy $100 worth of chemicals to get it running! I now have a bunch of chems that will never get used.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Dang... don't let my wife see this, we'll be buying another one since I gave ours away a week ago.

[Ryan_V]

(THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT) put in a stain and scale out or iron out fleet farm had a good stain and scale that must be put in forst before any shock or chlorine..quote]

is this a tablet?? What section of fleet farm will it be in?? I'm actually going to FF today to get the pool!!! we're all pretty excited!!

[gofishingtom]

ask on of the guys there the stain and scale is in the pool section

[Ryan_V]

O.K....after a long afternoon I have the pool. I also took advice and went with the saltwater system right away. I bought a bag of shock, will I need this, or just the salt?? I'm going to try and set it up tomorrow, hope it goes well!! Anyone have any advice for setting it up?? I know it's supposed to be level...but that's a problem at my house. I have a couple spots that have potential, but might not be "perfect" I'm planning on an extra ground tarp as well, just extra insurance. I also picked up the solar cover for it as well, as well as a bottle of metal and stain stuff.

Here we go, beers at my house tomorrow!!!

[Bigbartguy]

Conrats, very good purchases!

I'm on city water but:

I set mine up w/good sun exposure and ran a string w a line level across the area in a few spots (it may not be as level as it looks). Used a couple of 2x4 chunks to shim under the low poles and that's about it .

I put in recommended salt -go on lighter side rather than heavy - too much and you'll have to drain it . Ran filter for 12 hours, and turned on the salt system for 2 hours (mines 12x30).

I've had it take 10-15 min for the salt system to give the 'making cholorine' light so give it some time..(I usually grab another beverage at this point).. IF you get an error code, check the manual.

Kids were in it all evening tonight. They'll love it!

[Ryan_V]

I'm wishing I lived in town!!! Had to have a skid loader come and level out a spot on my yard. 26 acres and not one level spot for a pool!! In the place I put it, he had to take 16" off of one corner to make my spot level!!! so now I guess I'll have a partially in ground pool!!! I'm smoothing the ground as best I can, but it's still going to be pretty "wavy" when I'm done, shouldn't be a problem I hope. I'm picking out all the rocks and such. might bring in a little sand to even things out a bit!! Hoping tommorrow or friday to be filling it!!!

[SpecialK]

The sand underneath to help level it will help out a lot.

[Ryan_V]

water is in. 6400 gallons took about 8 hours for my well to fill. The filter pump is running, I added the salt, and tomorrow morning I can fire up the saltwater system!!! Hope that clears up the pool!! Can't wait to go swimming with my kids!!!

[Ryan_V]

I CANNOT get this darn pool to clear out, it hasn't cleared up a bit... I ran the saltwater system for the recommended amount of time for 3 days. "boosted" it yesterday, still the same. i called intex and I think it might be the saltwater system, so they are sending me a new one. I tried shocking it, and so far, that hasn't produced results either. Getting frustrated. I thought the saltwater system was the cats meow...but not in my case, at least not yet!!! anyone have any other ideas???

[hookjunior]

We just went through something similar, filling a pool with well water. Water was rusty then when we added the shock it got real dark. What we did was take a 5 gallon water jug drill a bunch of small holes in the bottom and filled the jug with stuffing from an old pillow. Then you take the hose that comes out of the filter off the fitting at the pool and attach it to your water jug and put the jug over the side of the pool. The pillow stuffing does a good job of filtering out the rust. You will have to clean your filter regulary. We got our 20ft pool cleared up in a couple days this way. Good luck.